Realist conceptualisations of power and the nation-state

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Abstract

This thesis is a project of intellectual history which focuses on the development of
notions of power and the nation-state in realist thought. The main aim of the thesis is
to offer a comprehensive account of how different conceptions of power in the work
of various realist thinkers influence their perceptions of the nation-state. Although
both power and the state are considered as central to realism, their connection has not
been adequately discussed and remains largely implicit. The thesis aims at
illuminating such a connection.
The authors under examination are both key realist thinkers and representative of the
diversity of realist thought as well as of the development from classical to structural
realism. As such, the thesis focuses on the works of E.H. Carr, H. Morgenthau (as
classical realists), J. Herz (as a transitional figure) and J. Mearsheimer (as a structural
realist). The thesis engages with each realist’s theory in a three-step process. First, it
analyses their conceptualisation of power and the role it plays in their ontological and
epistemological assumptions. Then, using that conceptualisation of power as a
starting point, it discusses its impact on the way the realist under examination
understood the nation-state. Finally, the way the aforementioned realists engaged
with the foreign policies of given nation-states is employed as an illustration of their
theoretical framework.
The thesis identifies a close interplay between power and the nation-state in all
realists examined. Power plays a central role in each realist’s ontology and as such
influences profoundly the way they conceptualised the nation-state. The latter can
thus be approached as a manifestation of power which is unfixed in time. The realists
examined approach the state as a historically conditioned entity. As such, it is argued
that it is power that constitutes the core analytical category of realism rather than the
state whose very conception is dependent upon that of power. In terms of the
development of realism, a process of gradual narrowing down of the concept of
power from classical to structural approaches is observed. The multifaceted
conception of power advanced by early realists is abandoned in favour of an
approach which understands power as material capabilities. While this approach is
compatible with a scientific vision of politics as manifested after the second debate it
reduces significantly realism’s analytical purchase both in understanding power and
the nation-state. This is evident in the precarious balance that neorealists have to
attain when theorising nationalism, the ideological corollary of the nation-state,
which can more fully be accounted for by classical realists. Finally, by removing
power from the field of epistemology, structural variants of realism lack the
reflexivity of earlier realists and as such find it difficult to engage in foreign policy
debates without compromising the core assumptions of their theory.
The thesis is structured as follows: In the introduction, the thesis is put in the context
of existing literature on realism and the way questions of power and the nation-state
have been addressed in the past. Questions of methodology and selection of authors
are also addressed in the introduction. The following four chapters are dedicated to
analysing the theories of the selected realists. The concluding section summarises the
findings and main argument of the thesis.